Treatments & Procedures

Cardiovascular Disease Treatments

Saint Francis Medical Center’s Heart Hospital in Cape Girardeau offers several procedures and treatments for cardiovascular disease. Our experienced cardiothoracic and vascular surgeons, cardiologists, nurses and technologists work 24 hours a day to perform bypasses, insert stents and pacemakers, and replace valves. We use the latest technology, such as the da Vinci Robotic Surgery System, which gives surgeons unparalleled surgical accuracy by combining 3-D visualization, high-definition cameras and four robotic arms.

Transradial Catheterization

Saint Francis Medical Center’s Heart Hospital was among the first facilities in southeast Missouri to offer transradial catheterization, which allows doctors to determine if and where blockages exist by accessing arteries through the patient’s wrist. This cardiovascular disease treatment allows doctors to perform angioplasty to open a blocked artery with the following benefits:

Fewer bleeding complications

Less pain

The ability to sit up and walk following the procedure

Significantly shorter hospital stays

Stenting

Aneurysms occur when the walls of the artery weaken and expand like a balloon. Stents reinforce the artery and restore blood flow. Our cardiovascular surgeons use three different treatments to repair arteries:

Abdominal aortic aneurysm stent grafting

Abdominal aortic aneurysm stent grafting

Endovascular stent graft

Bypass Surgery

When arteries are blocked, Saint Francis uses three types of bypass to reroute the blood supply. These treatments depend up the type of cardiovascular disease and the location of the blockage. Our heart surgeons use the following:

Coronary artery bypass graft surgery

Minimally invasive coronary artery bypass

Off-pump coronary artery bypass or beating-heart bypass

daVinci Surgery System

The da Vinci® S HD™ Surgical System is the newest innovation in minimally invasive surgery. The system gives surgeons unparalleled surgical accuracy by combining 3-D visualization, high-definition cameras and four robotic arms. As a result, complicated surgeries that were once done with traditional techniques – and the large incisions associated with them – can in most cases now be done with incisions about the size of a dime.

Valve Replacement

When heart valves are not functioning properly, Saint Francis uses a minimally invasive valve replacement procedure where cardiovascular surgeons use one or small incisions in the chest to repair the valves.

Pacemaker Implantation

A pacemaker sends electrical impulses to the heart to help it pump properly. The battery and electrical circuits are implanted in the body, usually under the shoulder or in the abdomen. Wires are placed on the heart muscle to deliver the small amount of electrical current needed to treat the abnormal rhythm.

Other Cardiovascular Disease Treatments

Saint Francis also offers the following cardiovascular treatments to patients in southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois: